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Moderates vs. conservatives over right-wing media

“These people have made politics a theater for identity politics for a segment of America, rather than a way to solve collective problems,” Frum told POLITICO, referring to conservative media commentators. “What is happening now, and it’s disturbing, is that this complex has sold the idea that conservatives are the real majority in America. That claim has been exposed as false. But they are turning on the country and leading their viewers toward alienation and rejection.”…

As moderates see it, the “conservative entertainment complex” of talk radio, Fox News, and right-wing blogs has an outsized and potentially fatal influence over the party, alienating Latinos with crass solutions to illegal immigration (“self-deportation”) and insulting women with disrespectful remarks about abortion and birth control…

“The usual suspects are out, and they’re saying, ‘Rush, we gotta reach out now to the Hispanics and reach out to the minorities, blacks,’” Limbaugh said on his radio program last week. “Everybody says that we need to reach out to minorities, but we have plenty of highly achieved minorities in our party, and they are in prominent positions, and they all have a common story.”…

“If you look at all the data, close to half of the U.S. considers itself pro-life. It’s nonsensical to argue that positions that stand at a parity with their opposing views should be eliminated from the national stage — it’s a perverse idea, and it won’t happen,” he argued. “That’s not the way things are. This is a representative system, and those voices will be heard, not silenced.”

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America is pretty varied culturally. Some areas are more conservative, other areas more moderate. Until Republicans can come to grips with the fact that different areas have different social culture and accept a FEDERAL agenda upon which all of them can agree, we are peeing up a rope.

There are way too many people out there that are “professional conservatives”… that are in it for the buck. Frum is right about the “conservative entertainment complex”… but there are also problems with the “conservative consultant complex”.

There used to be a conservative site called culture11… I really wish it had not closed down because it was a great site bringing together mostly youngish conservatives to discuss new ideas. I think Forbes or some other sugardaddy was funding it and it closed down because of the crash… someone needs to bring it back.

America is pretty varied culturally. Some areas are more conservative, other areas more moderate. Until Republicans can come to grips with the fact that different areas have different social culture and accept a FEDERAL agenda upon which all of them can agree, we are peeing up a rope.

crosspatch on November 11, 2012 at 6:03 PM

Actually stories like this that quote Steve Schmidt as a supposed conservative are just the RINO establishment trying to re-establish their bona fides by p!ssing on the rest of us and telling us it is raining.

The same GOP elites who now say we must give amnesty to illegal aliens hoping they’ll vote for Republicans are the same crooked elites who actively smeared, cheated and disenfranchised racial minorities who are actually American citizens that tried to participate in the political process.

Sounds like yet another reason for a return to federalism and a devolution of power back to the states.

Charlemagne on November 11, 2012 at 6:07 PM

It won’t solve the basic problems that Federalism has. Namely:

1.)It specifies no policies. It only shifts responsibility for the enactment of policies.

2.)It doesn’t address matters that are intellectually inconsistent. For example, if rape, murder, or theft, is morally wrong, then why should laws vary between states? Is a crime better or worse depending on what side of a state border one is on? Does that affect how innocent one is or the worth of one’s life? Of course not. But Federalists then are left with the unenviable task of defending the legitimacy of permitting disparate laws despite identical circumstances, and that flies in the face of the idea of “equal justice under law.”

The GOP elite don’t want to amnesty illegals because they care about racial minorities—if they cared they wouldn’t have locked them out and disenfranchised them during the primaries—no, they want to do amnesty because they have cronies who profit from the exploitation of illegal immigrants.

“If you look at all the data, close to half of the U.S. considers itself pro-life.It’s nonsensical to argue that positions that stand at a parity with their opposing views should be eliminated from the national stage — it’s a perverse idea, and it won’t happen,”

It’s amazing to me how this statistic is trotted out to defend a pro-life potions, as it should be, but pointing out the same about redefining marriage is poo-pooed.

We’ve served up two moderates in a row…clearly that wasn’t the right plan..that leaves serving up a leftist or a conservative…I suggest a real conservative next time with unassailable conservative history and cred…

If only we didn’t have FOX news and Rush Limbaugh around, the media would cover Republicans more favorably.

/

Alternative media as a rallying point is the only reason this nation even vaguely resembles the United States after Obama’s first two years. What would have happened without dissenting outlets as a rallying point then? Remember what was in the pipes? A Cap-N-Trade regime, card check that would rolled us back to the Wagner Act, single payer in a stroke (which would have been invulnerable to court challenges as a straight entitlement, unlike Obamacare) amnesty written on Obama’s terms, another payoff stimulus?

If it was up to Frum, Brooks, Kristol, etc, that would be the country we live in now. But at least parties around DC would be more pleasant.

Pro-life supporters who hope to overturn Roe Verses Wade or pass an amendment outlawing abortion nation wide in one fell swoop are only getting farther and farther away from that goal, all of a sudden. You’re best hope is to reduce the power of the central state so that your state can govern it’s own affairs consistent with the values of the people of your state. If some states in the south, for example, ban abortion, other states may not. I suspect that over time more and more states might implements pro-life laws while other states may never do so for generations. But that is better than losing the battle and having to chose between two pro-choice candidates for the rest of your lives in a two party duopoly, isn’t it?

If you live in a state where the sentiment leans pro-life and you want it at least for your state, just like my state should be allowed to legalize Marijuana without interference from the central state, then please vote for Ron Paul in ’16, or the closest candidate to him.

I don’t think these guys get in on immigration. Latinos are voting for democrats because that it who they most identify with. Most Latinos (and most illegals from anywhere) are from socialized countries so it is natural that they expect a very large government safety net. It is what they know. Geez, most hispanics are Catholic and they voted by a margin of like 74% for Obama knowing the Catholic church’s position on abortion (against) and amnesty (for). I wish we would stop with the meme that hispanics are natural conservatives.

Also, I didn’t listen to Frum before the election. Why would I listen to him now when the guy he and the moderate republican establishment chose LOST!

When I turned on Rush Limbaugh’s program the day after the election Rush said that Romney is the consummate conservative who couldn’t possibly have run a better campaign and therefor it must have been the conservatism itself that was rejected, not Romney.

When I turned on Rush Limbaugh’s program the day after the election Rush said that Romney is the consummate conservative who couldn’t possibly have run a better campaign and therefor it must have been the conservatism itself that was rejected, not Romney.

“Conservatism, in my humble opinion, did not lose last night. It’s just very difficult to beat Santa Claus.”

“Say what you want, folks: Mitt Romney did offer a vision of greatness, a vision of traditional America, a vision of an American recovery and return to prominence. He did that in his own way. You may not have thought it was the best way, but he did it in his own way.”

“It’s hard to beat Santa Claus. It’s especially hard to beat Santa Claus when the alternative is, ‘You be your own Santa Claus.’ ‘Oh, no! I’m not doing that. What do you mean, I have to be my own Santa Claus? No, no. No, no, no. I want to get up every day and go to the tree — and you’re the elves,’ meaning us.”

“Do you realize that Barack Obama’s message is that the people who are making it possible for him to be Santa Claus in this country aren’t working hard enough so he’s going to tax them more?”

“A lot of it doesn’t make sense until you accept that we have allowed the understanding of what creates prosperity in this country to be blown up into smithereens.”

“The Obama campaign was about small stuff. War on Women, binders, Big Bird, this kind of stuff. The Romney campaign was about big things, was about America.”

“Hurricane Sandy and the aftermath and the way Obama handled that, what did Obama do? He showed up one day, he bear hugged Chris Christie, and then he left. Situation on the ground is devastating. And yet Obama triumphs in the exit polls with that.”

“A majority of people like Obamacare in the exit poll. That goes against everything we’ve ever heard in any poll. Voters trust him more than Romney in an international crisis. What? How in the world can that be? In a rational, intelligent world, how can that be?”

“All of our lives, ladies and gentlemen, what have we heard when it comes to presidential elections? It’s the economy, it’s the economy, it’s the economy. In my lifetime, I’ve not lived in a worse economy than this one. This should have been a slam dunk.”

“Look, I’m in favor of optimism as much as the next guy, but we are living in the midst of the Democrat Party transforming this country. I don’t deny and I don’t doubt that race is a central factor in what happened, but it is not the sole explanation.”

“There isn’t a work ethic in this country anymore that’s universal. Get a college education and that means magic is supposed to happen for a lot of people. And if it doesn’t, if you don’t get stuff, if you don’t get success that they tell you you’re gonna get if you do these things, then the game’s rigged.”

“In our America, it is unpresidential to act like a baby and blame your predecessor. In our America, you man up! You take responsibility. You face problems head on and you try to fix ’em. The sad reality here is that there is no attempt to fix what’s going wrong in this country.”

“We’re four years into a transformation of this government becoming statist. It really is. Liberty versus tyranny. We’re four years into tyranny winning.”

“The Republican Party has more elected Hispanics serving in office than the Democrat Party has. And yet what is said about Republicans? Racist, sexist, bigots, and homophobes that discriminate and so forth.”

“In a country of children where the option is Santa Claus or work, what wins? And say what you want, but Romney did offer a vision of traditional America. In his way, he put forth a great vision of traditional America, and it was rejected. It was rejected in favor of a guy who thinks that those who are working aren’t doing enough to help those who aren’t.”

“I went to bed last night thinking we’re outnumbered. I went to bed last night thinking all this discussion we’d had about this election being the election that will tell us whether or not we’ve lost the country. I went to bed last night thinking we’ve lost the country. I don’t know how else you look at this.”

“The first wave of exit polls came in at 5pm. I looked at it, I read the first two pages, and I said to myself, ‘This is utter BS.’ And I forwarded the exit poll data that I had to three or four people, and my message to each of them, ‘This is utter BS, and if it isn’t, then we’ve lost the country.'”

“One of the greatest misunderstandings in this country, if you boil all this down, is what creates prosperity. The Romney campaign was essentially about that. The Romney campaign was devoted to the traditional American view and history — vision, as well — of what creates prosperity. The old capitalism, the old arguments of hard work, stick-to-itiveness, self-reliance, charity, helping out in the community.”

“For many of us, the country’s at a point where it’s never been in our lifetimes economically. We figured we had one chance to stop this direction and reverse it, take it back to the traditional path of American greatness. It was rejected. That America is not desired. That America is not wanted. It’s difficult to accept that. It’s a challenge that we’ll have to meet in reclaiming it.”

“The Associated Press said that this nation is more racist today than it was in 2008. AP, that’s been a theme of theirs: We’re more racist today 2008. Yet we just gave the first African-American president a Mulligan. We just gave him a do-over. What a racist nation this is. Ho, man.”

“I’ve offered my chair today to anybody who wants to sit in it, and nobody does.”

“We have to face some truths. We have to face some reality. We are outnumbered and we are losing ground. This was not a glitch. This is the trend that happened last night.”

“Do you realize not one iota of Obama’s message is oriented toward greatness or excellence in the individual? It’s a wide-open opportunity for us. We just have very few people on our side able to articulate it right now. But hopefully that
will change.”

“I’m not equipped to tell anybody how to deal with being lied about. You know, I’m somebody who is lied about routinely.”

“The Democrat Party is more than willing to destroy the traditions and institutions that have defined this nation’s greatness. It doesn’t matter what it takes. It doesn’t matter what they end up doing to people’s lives. Because at the end of it they’re all gonna have a phone, a TV set, a car and 120 free minutes and food stamps.”

“We’ve got two things that happened here. We are either outnumbered and are losing ground or one of the most outrageous thefts of an election in the history of elections taken place. One of those two things happened. You take your pick, but reality is reality.”

No, I don’t want that either. You are going to extremes. Why do I say this, well you stated in a post that Rush said that Romney was the “consummate conservative.” I don’t believe Rush said that at all. What Rush did say about Romney was:

“Say what you want, folks: Mitt Romney did offer a vision of greatness, a vision of traditional America, a vision of an American recovery and return to prominence. He did that in his own way. You may not have thought it was the best way, but he did it in his own way.”

There has to be a “third way” between the ugliness of Limbaugh (sorry folks, he is) and the squishiness of a Frum. If Frum had his way the party would be back towards a minority status when they were led by the likes of a Barber Conable or Everett Dirksen. Those moderate types that liberals just steamrolled. That won’t work.

But Limbaugh goes to far, is too doctrinaire and too insular. His day is past although not all of his ideas are.

insulting women with disrespectful remarks about abortion and birth control…

Telling women who can afford contraception that they have to pay for it or–at a minimum–subject to cost-control measures of co-pays or deductibles that apply to ANY OTHER prescription drug is insulting?

So much for the 1970s-era, Virginia Slims slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby, to get where you are today.”

There has to be a “third way” between the ugliness of Limbaugh (sorry folks, he is) and the squishiness of a Frum. If Frum had his way the party would be back towards a minority status when they were led by the likes of a Barber Conable or Everett Dirksen. Those moderate types that liberals just steamrolled. That won’t work.

But Limbaugh goes to far, is too doctrinaire and too insular. His day is past although not all of his ideas are.

SteveMG on November 11, 2012 at 7:34 PM

What has Rush said that is ugly? I’ve been listening to him for 20 years. Never heard him say anything ugly out of spite or malevolence.

Sounds like yet another reason for a return to federalism and a devolution of power back to the states.

Charlemagne on November 11, 2012 at 6:07 PM

I thought there would be a good tenth amendment fight over healthcare. But it seems that the republicans are too squishy to make any fight. It seems that the real tenth amendment fight is going to be over marijuana.